If the residents do not have leases or are on a month-to-month agreements, you will need to determine if you will renew when it expires or give proper notice (hint: you need to give notice).

The federal incentive is a credit and it will expire in 2020-ish (don't recall the date). 

And believe this - sellers have NO problem lying to your face about flooded properties, so make sure you have a way to verify before your option period expires.

You can only make chages prior to expiration.

I met an agent passing off properties that had tax abatements expiring in a  year or 2. 

Use hard money, try to renovate as leases expire, re-lease or shuffle the tenants, and refinance to get your money back.

if so this is slander of title and the person who did this can be in some serious legal trouble. and usually a well written letter from the sellers attorney will get this dropped and you can proceed.but if the seller took your offer before letting the other expire.. then there could be a case made that this first offer has some standing.

All my rentals are at least 12mo lease and once it expires it turns into month to month with rent being increased for month to month. 

Sometimes you automatically accept the house after the inspection period expires whether you inspected the home or not.  

My license will expire March of next year, so I'm trying to get it re activated and CE credits done before then.